Quinto Black CT - New Winamp Modern skin

[Victhor]

Yeah it's not a very cool window, although the info it contains it's actually good and useful.

There are 2 other implementations you can look at, both are on my Komodo X skin (PL+ page). The simplest one is a button that will open a menu to choose the playlist, and the more complicated extracts that info and presents it as buttons, although I suspect it can be turned into a more simplistic list).

[PeterK.]

I did manage to get the snap points to work properly but we still have the issue of having the shadow (which is red in this screenshot for better visibility) cover the other component docked to the Main Player, which "has focus" and is topmost:

[Victhor]

Yep, that can't be changed. The focused window goes to forefront by design. It's not a bad outcome though.. If the other window gets the focused then the shadow hides accordingly.

[Aminifu]

Hi PeterK.,

I like that you have decided to provide a frequency response graph plot and I hate being late to the discussion, but I have some questions about the bass and treble controls in that window. What affect do they have on the sound output? Which range of frequencies do they control? Do these controls override the equalizer settings or work separately from them?

The screenshot in post #273 shows a response plot that appears to correspond to the equalizer frequencies settings shown in the equalizer window in that post. However, there is nothing shown in this plot (that I can see) to indicate the effects of the bass (+22%) and treble (+31%) controls settings. If both the equalizer and bass and treble controls are applied separately and simultaneously to the sound output, then the response plot should show the combined effects, imo. If the bass and treble controls override the equalizer, then the response plot should show that.

Also, will the equalizer preamp setting have an effect on the response plot? Will the entire plot relatively shift above or below the 0 db line in response to a positive or negative preamp setting?

[PeterK.]

...

Hello Aminifu,

I do apologize in advance for not being able to answer your questions in a "scientific" way because there seems to be not much of a science regarding the additional bass and treble knobs.

So let us start from the top.

Those two knobs (plus the balance knob which I added) are implemented using the scripts from the MMD3 skin. And the biggest limitation while doing so is the fact that I could not understand what many parts of the script and especially those equations are exactly doing. This has the side affect that increasing or decreasing the size of those knobs or amount of the animated layer frames used for the knob movement would lead to chaos. Hence I had to keep most stuff exactly the same. I also never understood the default positions of the equalizer bands while turning the knobs to the left or right. I googled it in order to find the default positions of those equalizer sliders when bass is set to -50 % (for example) but never found anything useful.

(And in case you move the preamp slider to the top, you will notice that the corresponding line (the blue horizontal one) will go to the bottom. - compare to Classic Skin)

You have to understand that the most decisive aspect in this "plot-knobs-sliders"-triangle are the slider values and that sliders/frequency line/knobs are linked to each other. You cannot move the knobs without seeing any changes in the slider values and vice versa: moving the sliders will change the positions of the knobs indicators accordingly. If I grab the first slider thumb (70Hz) and drag it to the bottom you will notice that the frequency line goes all the way down to -12 dB while the bass knob moves automatically to -18 %:



Moving the same slider to the top (+12 dB) will move the frequency line to the top and the bass knob to the max of 50%:



Choosing an equalizer preset will change the slider position, which will change the frequency line and in the end also the position of the knob indicator on both knobs:



Now you can increase or decrease the "amount" of bass or treble by moving (or clicking on) the knobs. This movement will change the positions of the "bass-sliders" (first five) and/or the positions of the "treble-sliders" (last five).

[Aminifu]

...

(And in case you move the preamp slider to the top, you will notice that the corresponding line (the blue horizontal one) will go to the bottom. - compare to Classic Skin)

You have to understand that the most decisive aspect in this "plot-knobs-sliders"-triangle are the slider values and that sliders/frequency line/knobs are linked to each other. You cannot move the knobs without seeing any changes in the slider values and vice versa: moving the sliders will change the positions of the knobs indicators accordingly.
...

Thank you for clearing that up for me. Sometimes, I think PHDs in math and music are needed to really understand this stuff. I was hoping that your bass and treble controls would not affect the equalizer's sliders. Skins with bass and treble controls, that I have tried in the past, worked pretty much the same as these you have borrowed from the MMD3 skin.

I think the Winamp equalizer does let a song be made to sound differently in an overall sense, but it doesn't let things be fine tuned enough to bring out a single instrument or vocalist. I have tried the Constant-Q and 4Front modes and the ISO standard frequency bands, but none of these options let me achieve what I'm looking for.

I've been experimenting with equalizers with more than 10 frequency bands and more steps in increasing and decreasing the dB levels between +/- 12 dB. Some of them let me get closer to the results I'm looking for (depending on the song), but I'm starting to believe that what I want to do is not possible.

[PeterK.]

I have a confession to make: I must have some kind of a blue period because I cannot stop giving all components of my skin a subtle blueish touch.

But look for yourself:



And? How is it coming along? Can we keep it?

[ariszlo]

I am not a fan of blue myself – GUI designers tend to put blue on everything – but this is fine.

[DJ-Garybaldy]

Blue is supposed to be a calming colour isn't it?

[ariszlo]

Might be but it is very boring seeing it everywhere, isn't it?

[PeterK.]

Blue is supposed to be a calming colour isn't it?

Being honest I was not aware of it. I chose this color following more or less a gut feeling. But I am glad to hear that my work is "relaxing" - sort of - kind of ...

Might be but it is very boring seeing it everywhere, isn't it?

Which hue value would you prefer to see in here. Huh? Pick one, add Saturation and Luminance and show me ...
(P.S. Please do not tell you also would love to see these color combinations in my skin ...)

[ariszlo]

But as I said before, Quinto Blue CT is all right. It is far from being boring.

[PeterK.]

Some weeks ago I was going to publish a special edition of my skin called Skylight:



It was a mixture of gray background (from the very first Quinto release) and this bright blue/cyan. In the end this color constellation did not completely convince me and I quickly abandoned the project and went back to the standard look.

[libero]

The color solution is good. The arrow again with the shadow? If yes, then in vain - it is difficult to read. Again, please, please make the LED indicator in more detail - this is the main element of any cover. Especially since she already claims to be a Hi-Fi. I would still arrange the size of the windows. They are of different sizes and they are inconvenient to dock with each other.

[Creator]

Great work! A few years down the road and this is still one of the best skins out there.